Over the years, many different techniques have been developed and promoted for increasing reading speed and maintaining comprehension and retention of the reading matter. These techniques have involved departing from the traditional method of reading text presented in the printed page format, where each successive word is read in sequence across the page and line by line. The reason for developing the different reading techniques has been attributed largely to certain drawbacks associated with the traditional reading method which mitigate against increasing reading speed and maintaining comprehension. Moreover, the complete printed page approach of presenting text, where the text is basically static and the reader is required to move their eye along a line, can cause distraction to the reader by the entire text appearing both above, below and beside the word being read. Consequently, many readers suffer from repeating the reading of lines of text, sentences and paragraphs, which slows the reading rate and works against maintaining comprehension and retention of the reading matter during the time that the text is first read.
Alternative reading techniques have tried to address this particular problem by training the reader away from the old style of reading using machines which blank out those portions of the page not being read at a particular point in time, and/or alternatively by highlighting that portion of the text being read. A drawback of these techniques is that the text still remains passive, in that the eye of the reader is still required to move from word to word and keep pace with the highlighted portion of text. Furthermore, with the adoption of these techniques, they are highly machine dependent, and so prior to the modern computer age, were expensive to implement.
With the introduction and widespread acceptance and use of modem day computer systems, such reading techniques can be implemented at a fraction of the cost of what was previously the case. Further, with the power of modem computer systems, more sophisticated and improved reading techniques can be developed and used to improve reading speed and maintain comprehension and retention of reading matter on a full time basis, with textual matter stored and displayed on the computer terminal, as opposed to being used simply as a training tool.
With the popularity of information networks and databases such as Internet and the use of electronic mail, and mass media such as CDROM for transferring and storing large amounts of textual information, there is a much greater incentive now for persons to improve their reading speed and comprehension of textual information than has ever previously been the case. This combined with the inherent power of the modem personal computer and the visual dynamism of graphical user interfaces such as WINDOWS (registered trade mark) and other multitasking windowing environments, there is an ideal opportunity to introduce more proficient reading techniques and incorporate these permanently with appropriate application software employed for the handling of such textual information to provide a new environment for reading which lends itself to quicker practices and improved comprehension.